


Retrospective

by Jadealiya



Category: Mass Effect
Genre: Gen, spacer shepard
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-18
Updated: 2017-03-18
Packaged: 2018-10-07 10:20:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10358172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jadealiya/pseuds/Jadealiya
Summary: A routine assignment, made interesting only in retrospect.  (or the first time Shepard crossed paths with Hackett.) Written for the Insanity Round on LJ.  Prompt - "The Stories Untold."





	

The _Gettysburg_ was operating light, working under a skeleton crew to move from the Second Fleet to Arcturus. A standard routine necessity, helping to keep the fleets balanced as new ships were launched and older ships retired. Captain Hackett had been aboard several such transfers before and likely would be again. Monotonous and traditionally uneventful, the running joke was that such missions were perfect for catching up on paperwork and playing cards. The only oddity this time around was the little girl.

Her mother was an officer, transferring to the _Ardennes_. Her father was currently the head of engineering on board the _Gettysburg_. Someone somewhere in the grand bureaucracy overseeing transfers and assignments had decided it would save time and money letting the couple bring their daughter on a warship to complete their PCS.

He had originally objected. An active ship, even on an inconsequential non-mission like this one, was no place for a civilian, especially a child who was barely old enough to start school, especially with peace still a new luxury in a universe much fuller than anyone had anticipated. He envisioned tantrums and trouble and curious hands getting into all sorts of things he barely trusted trained soldiers to handle. Or worse, running into actual trouble and having a kid underfoot. It turned out, however, that his ship's smallest passenger was a welcome addition on an otherwise quiet trip.

She was polite. She listened to her parents and mostly stayed out of the way. She was incredibly curious, but she charmed her way into everyone's good graces and only then peppered them with questions about the ship and their jobs. On the last day out, Hackett found himself showing her around part of the CIC. At the end of their tour, when he asked her what she thought of being on the ship, the little girl grew thoughtfully quiet before informing him that she was going to be a marine when she grew up. A marine or a ballerina.

An uneventful mission. Wholly forgettable, not even worth a footnote in his career. But many years later, when her name started crossing his desk as she climbed through the ranks, when the universe went to hell and she was the driving force behind putting it back together, he found himself glad that he had played some small part in setting her on her path.

**Author's Note:**

> ((Written in 2013 but didn't make the jump with the rest of my prompt fills from the old LJ Mass Effect community. Figured I should bring it over. ^_^))


End file.
